While I stated in my last post that I was trying out Arch Linux, I’m about to pull the trigger on a new Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition that comes with Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, and I think I'l that. I may wipe the drive and install Gnome Ubuntu so all the Unity cruft isn’t on the system, but that’s it. The great thing about using the Developer Edition on the XPS is that you can install any flavor of Linux you want and it won’t void the warranty from Dell.

But beyond that, I have an old 2010 Mac Mini here. It only came with 4gigs of RAM, and when it was finally updated to Sierra, there was VERY little RAM left to do anything, with the system taking up so much. To run a Plex server was painful because it would run out of memory and start hitting the swap pretty hard. So I said, screw it and wiped everything and installed Ubuntu Server 16.04 LTS (Long Term Support). It now sits with all the services running (Plex, Transmission, SMB server, SSH, VPN) at 450MBs

As you can see, there is plenty of RAM left without all the UI stuff that isn’t needed for a server. Plus, it was relatively easy to set up…and kinda fun (well, for me at least). It certainly gave this seven-year-old piece of hardware a new lease on life.

Again, I’m still moving toward a more diverse digital life instead of putting all my eggs in one basket. Only a few years ago we were a TOTAL Apple household. Macs, iPhones, iPads, Apple TV, Airport Extreme. Now, the only Apple thing I have is the Mac Mini, but it’s running Linux. I’m replacing the Apple TV with an Nvidia Shield. Replacing the Airport Extreme with a different router (don’t get me started on how hard it was to find a router that fits my needs…and I’m still not totally sure which one to get, but it’s getting narrowed down). I just don’t want EVERYTHING to be dependent on one company or service….be it Apple or Microsoft or Google. Diversity is the key.